GROUP DYNAMICS
Groups are incalculably important
in the life of every human being. And skills in
group functioning are vital to all of us. Belonging to groups is the most important aspect of our life. The quality of our life depends upon the effectiveness if the groups to which we belong and this effectiveness is largely determined by our personal group skills and knowledge of group processes.
Broadly speaking a group is a collection of persons in face-to-face, interaction, each people aware of his own membership, share defines common goals and use a problem-solving process to achieve them. Miller and Rice, two eminent sociologists said in 1964, that “An individual has no meaning except in relation to others with whom he interacts. He uses them, they use him to express views, take action and play roles. The individual is a creature of the group, the group of the individual.
As humans, we are social animals and have an inherent social nature. It’s not in our nature to live alone. For example, we are born into a group called family and would not survive the first few minutes, the first few weeks or the first few years of our lives without membership in this group. Almost all of our time is spent interacting in groups, we are educated in groups, we work in groups, we worship in groups, and we play in groups. In fact, our whole life is spent in a variety of group memberships. Even our species identity as a human being is developed in our interactions with others within groups.
Many of our goals can be achieved only with the cooperation and coordination of others. The pooling of resources to accomplish common objectives results in advantages for each group member that he or she could never enjoy through individual action. Our psychological health depends upon our group memberships. Psychological health is the ability to be aware of and manage effectively our relationships with other people.
Basically, it is possible to highlight ten major phenomena clearly known today. These points are of vital importance in helping the group leader to understand the psychological impact of groups: The way, in which individuals learn, the speed of their learning, the retention of learned materials, ans the way in which they solve problems are definitely influenced by the groups to which they belong and in which they participate. The group influences the individual’s formation of attitudes and tends to be importance in the development of norms of response to situations.
Group experience operates to change all individual’s level of aspiration ans striving. Individual goal sting is highly dependent upon group standards. Group experience operated to modify the individual’s habits of living, working and otherwise carrying on life’s pursuits. Group experience has a powerful influence upon the individual’s perception of himself and his role in a given situation. Groups tend to provide psychological support for individuals and help them to express themselves both positively and negatively. However, groups always tend to influence the choices that members make they are in situations where alternatives are presented.
Groups definitely affect an individual’s speed, accuracy and productivity in the work situation, providing security to its member and tend to place limits on the individual’s drive for power and his need to be controlling